The Halloween Spirit
by ivedonestranger
Summary: Robin just wanted a vacation day before the Halloween crimes. It was not what he got when a broken communication of Beast Boy brought him back to the tower.


Robin raced as fast as his motorcycle would take him towards the rising T-shaped tower in the bay. His day off before the Halloween rush of criminality had been cut short by the frantic calls from Beast Boy. He had no clue what he meant do the broken signal barely got through the words' crazy', 'raven,' 'monsters,' and 'blood.' His heart pounded in his chest as he flew through the streets, finally making his way to the bridge that connected the tower to the mainland. He screeched to a halt to find it shut. That was not how he left it when he had embarked on his day off earlier.

Richard Grayson slammed his fist on the remote on his bike, but nothing happened. A quick change showed that the frequency was not being accepted anymore.

_'Shit!' _he thought to himself as he kicked the stand down and got off his bike to examine the hardened shell that protected the outside panel from the weather. He found the secret button and popped it open to see the computer inside. The entire system was blinking lockdown in bold, threatening, red letters.

The boy wonder tried his password, but the system immediately refused it. Someone had changed the codes of the entire system. Only one person in the tower had that know-how, and it did not make sense Cyborg locking him out.

A buzz of wings appeared behind him, and Robin spun to see Bumblebee alight in full combat guard pattern yellow and black. The helmet she was wearing recessed back into the neck bracer she wore. Kid Flash appeared beside her while a certain pink-haired girl in a black dressing and multicolored stockings trotted in beside them.

"We heard the alert," Karen said looking up at the tower.

"And what is she doing here?" Robin asked looking at Jinx.

"Tryin' to help," Jinx shot back. "When the high and mighty Teen Titan tower goes into lockdown, The HIVE is more worried than you."

"She's with me, Robin," Kid Flash said with a grin. "You can trust her."

"Pfft, you wish I was with you," Jinx said with a snort, but a quirk to her mouth was apparent.

"Any idea what's going on?" Robin asked.

"Nah," Bumblebee said, stepping up and examining the computer panel. "We just got Beast Boy's message that some sort of monster has gotten loose in the tower, and they were locking the facility down."

"You heard more than me," Robin said, frowning. "They came overall broken and static."

"The code?" Kid Flash asked, zipping to the door.

"Cyborg seems to have reset the whole system," Robin mused, rubbing his chin and trying to think. "We're not holding any artifacts or anything like that. What type of monsters could they be referring to?"

They all looked at him, and Robin raised an eyebrow. The mixture of bemusement and sheer surprise at his statement told him he had missed something.

"What?"

"Ummmm….you got a half-demon in there and tomorrow is Halloween night. Don't her powers get a bit wonky around this time?"

"That's a myth," Robin said sharply. "And I doubt Raven lost control of her powers. She's been much better since her father's defeat."

"And yet here we are not able to get into home, sweet home," Jinx mused.

Robin turned back. His gut was churning at the suggestion they had made. Had Raven somehow lost it? If she did, what were they going to do?

"We need to get in and find out what's going on before we start making assumptions," Robin said with finality. "How?"

"I gotta an idea," Jinx said with a smirk. "Hey, flash. Come, give me a kiss."

Wally's grin grew brighter, and he zipped over to her. As he was about to stop, Jinx sidestepped, and he caught her tow and stumbled. Wally tried to overcompensate but wound up running into Bumblebee, who fell forward, was caught by Robin, who then fell back and hit the encased pipe protect the wiring to the security system. The stunner attached to Robin's best misfired injecting the system. With a scream of protest, the system reset, and the door slid open.

"JINX!" Bumblebee and Robin said at the same time.

"Hey! Bad luck isn't pretty, but it gets the job done." Jinx said with a shrug as she marched through the gate.

"Does that mean I can't kiss you?" Kid flash asked mournfully.

"Ya can kiss my ass," Jinx said with the middle finger over her shoulder.

"I can do that too."

"Wally," Robin said with a roll of his eyes as Jinx giggled and a flush to her gray cheeks.

"And here I thought we grew out of our childish shenanigans," Karen muttered as she activated her helmet and the rest of her suit.

"Never," Wally laughed as he took off to catch up with the Pinkette.

Robin did a mental check off all the equipment on his belt. He had only stopped two crimes on his day off and was still stocked for the most part. Smoke bombs, birderangs, and a few reloads of his wrist tasers and grapple gun. He was not going to leave anything to chance.

It took a few minutes to cross the bridge on foot, but they soon came to the large bay doors that were re-enforced concrete and steel. The entire computer system was shut down here, so Robin's only thought was the side door. It still had power but was on back up system.

The air had taken on a sense of lethality he could not explain, as if life had stayed out of the Titan's property and only death awaited inside. The door, fortunately, had not been repaired from the last time Cyborg had tried to upgrade it and wound up frying the entire system. A placed miniature explosive was enough to shatter the metal lock and swing the door open.

"Alright, We play it careful and don't take anything for granted," Bumblebee started. "We don't know what we're facing. Could be an enemy or could be a rogue titan."

"Why do you keep saying that?" Robin said, irritated. "My team isn't going to go berserk."

No one responded, but he did pick up on some sorrowful and pitying expressions. Why did it feel like he was out of the loop on this?

"Switch communicators to Frequency E-22. Encryption modulating is phase 2. That way, we can be sure of our transmissions being secure," Robin said as he adjusted it in his communicator. He remote linked it to the Bluetooth earbud he pulled out of one of his belt's compartments and placed it in his ear.

"Jinx and Wally, your team one." Bumblebee said. "Sweep towards the Titan's rooms and see if you can find anyone."

The two grinned at each other, and Bumblebee frowned. "And keep your clothes on, you two."

"We'll try," Wally said as he led Jinx towards the first set of steps.

"Main room?" Karen inquired, and Robin nodded. They had to get to the computer systems and figure out what was going on wrong. Moving to the second flight of stairs near the dead elevators, Robin and Bumblebee began to make the climb slowly, and dread began to fill him.

A smell had begun to permeate the building. A bouquet of rot and iron. He had smelled it before in Gotham. Blood. And a lot of it.

"What the hell is that smell?" Bumblebee asked with a crinkle of her nose.

"Blood," Robin growled. "A lot of it."

Pushing open the stair door to the floor that held their conference rooms and living room, Robin was assailed with the smell. He looked about in the emergency lightning and saw dark stains trailing about and all over the floor.

"Oh, god!" Bumblebee gasped as she covered her mouth to block the stench. "This is a massacre."

"ROBIN!"

The voice peeled out, and Robin drew his bo staff ready to strike. Running towards him through the darkened hallway was the willowy form he could recognize anywhere.

"Starfire!" he called to her. He caught her and held back a gasp. Her hair was matted in dark red blood, her clothes were a shamble, and there was a look of terror in her eyes.

"Robin! You must flee! She is too powerful!" Starfire gasped out.

"Starfire, where is everyone? Where is Cyborg?"

"He was going to try to call the Justice League or Doom Patrol. I have not seen him since!"

Her breath was coming in short gasps, and her eyes were wide looking about.

"And beast boy, where is beast Boy?"

Robin watched as the wide eyes grew even bigger, and she randomly gestured about. "Here, and here. he's all over the walls." She sobbed. "You're stepping in him."

"Oh, god!" Bumblebee said, moving away, trying not to retch.

"Who did this? Who did this!" Robin yelled.

A low, lilting laugh emanated from deep down the darkened hallways, and Starfire squealed in fright. Lashing out of the darkness was a black tendril of energy that wrapped around the girl's middle and ripped her free of Robin's grasp.

"Starfire!" Robin screamed.

"Save yourself!" she cried back in a sob as the tendril. Her scream was silenced by a terrifying crunch and squishing sound.

"Oh, god, it's Raven," Bumblebee said pacing.

"Nnno…." Robin tried to say, but his mouth had gone dry. The sticky stuff was his friend Garfield, and the horrible sound had to be the beautiful Tamaranian coming to a gruesome end. Robin frowned and charged forward bostaff ready. Bumblebee made a grab to stop him, but she missed. She went around the corner and found the hallway empty except for a large red sticky puddle on the floor. He knelt down, trying to keep the rage inside. He gently touched the pool wishing somehow he could have saved her. He found a strange black seed stuck to his hand.

"What did you find?"

"A watermelon seed," Robin said with a grimace. "Beast Boy loved spitting these everywhere. We've been cleaning these up for weeks."

"We...we need to get to the control room," Robin said firmly. He had to agree with her now. Raven had lost it.

For the next five minutes, they crept slowly through the blood splattered walls and the blinking lights. The emergency power had slowly begun to fade.

They came to the cavernous rooms and found it empty. Nobody was there. Robin strode over quickly and activated the computers. The readout showed him that outside communication was down and also the ability to scan the building. He did find that the fried network still held footage from the last few hours in it's backup memory.

"Do you...do you want to watch?" Bumblebee asked in a horrified surprise as he queued up the code.

"We have to."

* * *

_The first clip stamped four hours ago began. The room was bright, and they were all in the living room together. Cyborg was tinkering on something in his lap, Starfire was playing a video game with beast Boy, and Robin was leaning back on the couch with a grin. _

_"I'm gonna enjoy this day off, you guys," Robin was saying. "Gonna go do some stuff I've been meaning to do for a while." _

_"Pfft, I wouldn't go out in the evening," Beast Boy responded as he focused on the Tamaranian who had gotten a bit too good at the Lethal Punching II. "You heard the stories about ghosts and monsters that come out around Halloween." _

"_Just stories," Robin laughed. _

_Raven moved past the back of the couch silently with a book up in front of her. He had not realized she had been that close to him as he was focusing on his friends. _

"_Really?" Cyborg said with a wry expression. "Darkseid and his parademons? Zatanna and that other dude and their fight against the underworld. Trigon of all things."_

"_Not the same thing," Robin said. "Plus, we can handle what they throw at us." _

"_You ain't' scared?" _

"_I never get scared."_

"_Not even Raven?" _

_Robin laughed. "Like I said, not even Raven. Goth chicks dig me."_

_The three who could see him rolled their eyes._

_It was at that point he noted Raven by the teapot who shuddered and doubled over quietly. He saw the black tendrils lick at the bottom of her cloak before they receded._

* * *

How did they miss that? Raven had some sort of spasm, but everybody kept going on with their lives as if nothing had changed or happened. He queued up the next video and braced himself. It was an hour and a half ago, 20 minutes before the call.

* * *

_The scene was the same, except everybody had moved. Starfire was now watching Cyborg work while Beast Boy was playing Mega Monkeys XI. Raven had returned but was standing in a darkened hallway, bracing herself between the door jamb watching everybody. _

_"Oh, hey, Rae Rae," Beast Boy said, noticing her when he got up to get a soda. _

"_I…." Robin heard her voice come through thick and modulating. "I need meat."_

_"Umm…." Beast Boy said, faltering. "I think Cyborg has some leftover meatballs." _

_"I want it….fresh," Raven said, a tone of ravenous delight filling her voice. _

_"Uh….Cy….dude... Raven's acting weird." _

_Cyborg had stood while Starfire took up a flanking position putting Raven in the middle of the triangle they formed. Raven was now breathing hard, her body shuddering as if it could not get enough air. _

"_Raven-"_

_The shriek that followed was painful and terrifying. Raven had thrown back her hood, and he could make out the glowing four red eyes and the small rows of serrated teeth as her demon side manifested. The tendrils of onyx colored power shot out striking Starfire and Cyborg, sending them flying while Beast Boy scrambled away. Raven leaped at him, taking him to the ground and began to chomp down on his arm. _

_Beast Boy began to scream. "DUDE! SHE'S TRYING TO EAT ME!"_

_Cyborg lunged and tore Raven away, blood covering her mouth and running down the corners of her lips. A crazed grin was on her face as she turned and tried to bite Cyborg. He hurled her away, and Starfire helped Beast Boy up. _

_The footage cut, and it began a darkened room. The timestamp was 20 minutes ago, and all he could make out was Raven, sans cloak covered with blood standing in the center of the room. She was breathing heavily, and she was staring right at the camera, her four red eyes watching it with glee. It was almost as if she was looking right back at him, knowing he would watch the footage. In a blink, her entire face filled the camera._

* * *

Bumblebee and Robin fell back at the freeze-frame of Raven's gore covered face in the camera lens.

"SHIT!" Bumblebee squealed as she fell flat on her back. "That girl's terrifying."

"That confirms it," Robin said with a growl. "Raven's lost it."

"What do we do?"

"We need to stop her. Capture her or put her down," Robin muttered, pulling out the devices and changing their settings for a much more powerful foe.

The communicators crackled to life, and the two jumped again.

"Robin, Bumblee! 22nd floor! Raven's gone full demon!"

"Retreat!" Robin roared. "You're no match for her."

"She's got Jinx, I can't leave her, get here as fast as you can."

"Wally!" Bumblebee called, but the device went silent.

"We need to move. Now!"

* * *

When the elevator opened, both Robin and Bumblebee had their weapons pointed forward. The hallway was empty and dark. Only their flashlights illuminating ahead. They crept slowly forward as Robin thought about what he was going to do. He had to stop her, but he did not want to kill her. Even though it appeared she had murdered their teammates, the boy wonder was not yet ready to rule her out as a lost cause.

"We gotta do something," Bumblee was saying quietly. "We can't hold back, Robin. She's gonna get us too."

"We can't just-"

"There!"

Robin and Bumblebee looked ahead and saw that their flashlight illuminated a standing form. As they slowly grew closer, they saw the svelte form of Jinx though it appeared she had been through hell. She was facing away but was wearing her skirt with torn leggings and no top except for her gray bra. Her hair was tousled and matted.

"Jinx?" Robin called softly, but the girl didn't turn. He placed a hand on her shoulder. "Jinx!"

The girl turned, her eyes white and rolled in her head, her mouth opens in sheer terror. Blood ran down from her mangled throat, and she collapsed gurgling in his arms.

"It's a trap!" Bumblebee cried panicked, looking around. A body came hurling out of the dark, catching the female superhero and throwing her to the ground. Wally's bloodstained corpse weighed her down.

Strolling out of the darkness and into the light was the blood-soaked form of Raven. Her red eyes were glowing, and he could see the serrated teeth in an evil grin.

"I wanted to do so much to her, but she wouldn't play," Raven cooed. "So, I ripped her throat out."

Robin fell back, crawling backward while holding Jinx in his arms. Bumblebee pushed Kid Flash's body off and was about to fire her gun when a black tendril shot out, grabbed her, and a sharp crack filled the hallway. Karen's lifeless body hit the floor beside Grayson.

"Just you and me now, Robin," Raven said with a smirk. "I'm in a...lecherous mood. Wanna entertain me? I might let you live."

"What happened to you, Raven?" Robin said.

"I decided to be what I am."

"How could you-"

"you're not going to take me up on my offer?" Raven said with a sigh. "Oh, well. I'll wait for the next male heroes that come to investigate the tower's silence."

The black tendrils shot out of the darkness and grabbed hold of him. They lifted him in the air, and Robin braced for the inevitable.

"Now, there is one thing I want you to remember, Robin," Raven cooed in his ear. "never EVER say that I can't scare you."

A grin broke across her face as she gently set him down on his feet.

"Ummm….what?"

He was blinded as the lights of the tower snapped back on, and he saw blood-covered Raven but a smile and usual amethyst eyes looking back at him. She was the small, demure girl he knew and not the demon he had seen in the videos.

"What...what is going on?" Robin asked, trying to breathe and figure out why he was still alive.

"Yous got played, DUDE!" screeched a voice from down the hallways in peels of laughter. Robin looked around confused and down at the corpses of Jinx and Bumblebee that were inexplicably pulling themselves to their feet. Each was laughing with silent mirth.

"I can't believe you," Jinx said as she leaned on Bumblebee with laughter. "You coped a feel while I was dead. You're a pervert."

"I was trying to save you!" Robin exploded.

"No groping my girl, Robin," Kid Flash said, walking over and slapping his friend on his back.

Joining him in the hallway laughing and hugging him was Starfire, still matted and covered in blood, but she kissed him on the forehead.

"You silly gnup narp, You should never challenge friend Raven,"

It was at that moment that it all kicked in.

"This was a prank?"

"Best prank in the world!" Cyborg said, exiting the elevator and holding on one of the master remotes for the tower. "When you once said that Raven couldn't scare you, she decided that you need to learn a bit of humility."

"This...this was your idea?" Robin asked incredulously as the relief flowed through him.

Raven was putting on her cloak that Starfire handed her. She simply met his eyes, and he knew the answer without her saying. Robin braced himself on the wall as his friends held him up.

"Starfire...I heard you die," he said, trying to pull himself together.

"That was me squishing a melon of water."

"I thought the game was up when you found the seeds," Bumblebee said. "Thank goodness for your overactive imagination."

"And Raven made sure that we act out everything in front of the camera, knowing you'd find it," Cyborg said. "She's a little mastermind herself."

Robin's friends were fine, and he had fallen for a prank. He was just relieved to have them. He wrapped an arm around Star and Beast Boy and pulled them close. He laughed to cover up his tears of happiness.

"I'll never take you guys for granted again," he said with a smile. "Raven got me fair and square. She's the scariest thing on Halloween."

"Thank you," she murmured, pulling out a book from her cloak.

"Now, if you all don't mind. You have a tower to clean while I go back to my reading."


End file.
